We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Four companies dominate our daily lives unlike any other in human history: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. We love our nifty phones and just-a-click-away services, but these behemoths enjoy unfettered economic domination and hoard riches on a scale not seen since the monopolies of the gilded age. The only logical conclusion? We must bust up big tech.

Sunday, February 11. 2018

At 11 p.m. on Wednesday high school students competing at the Kentucky Music Educators Association’s All-State Choir came out of their rooms at the Hyatt Regency Louisville to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Youtube poster: "The Kentucky State Choir Finals schools are all staying at my hotel. They decided to sing the National Anthem together on every single floor." The effect of the singers on each floor of the atrium hotel makes for powerful acoustics.

Friday, January 5. 2018

Tuesday, December 12. 2017

The miracle of Chanukah, the celebration of which begins tonight, is about more than the sacred oil lasting eight days. It is about the determination of mankind to overcome despair, to rise up in our faith, to have freedom. This meditation is appropriate:

Hanukkah [Chanukah, properly, with a gutteral "ch"] begins on the 25th of Kislev. All through this period, our days grow ever shorter with light leaving our world as we move from the Jewish month of Cheshvan to Kislev. The Jewish calendar is lunar and the first of any month always coincides with the new moon, so it is easy to make certain that Hanukkah always falls at the darkest time of the year, the time when the sources of light --the moon and sun -- together cast as little light as possible. This always falls in the period from the 25th of Kislev to the beginning of the next month, Tevet. All during Hanukkah we light more and more candles, as the moon wanes and disappears and the world becomes progressively a darker place. We are rewarded on the last day when a sliver of the new moon finally appears, daylight increases, and the world outside grows progressively lighter. We can also think of this as spiritually connected with the High Holidays. Rosh Hashanah is on the 1st of Tishrei, just three months earlier, a time when we confront the darkness of our souls and the hope that we can take steps towards the light. Hanukkah demonstrates that this can take place in our physical world if we keep faith and act and persevere no matter how hopeless it all seems. The victory we will celebrate at Hanukkah is also a victory over fear and hopelessness wherever it exists –- including within ourselves.

Odetta, great folksinger and inspiration to many others ("The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta."- Bob Dylan), explains the meaning of one of her favorite songs. Listen closely. Then clap hands and sing along with her.

Friday, November 10. 2017

Today is the 242nd birthday of the Marine Corps. There's good reasons we're the few and the proud, and feared by our nation's enemies and respected by our nation's friends. Those of weak spine and mind may resent those of us who are not, but they are not the ones first called to charge forward, known to win. Instead weaklings guard their own rears (sometimes).

Sunday, October 22. 2017

In a recent discussion with a fairly knowledgeable person of centrist views we raised the question to each other, what does the government do well? Sure, there’s education, but it has become too much an exercise in inculcating left-liberal themes and not preparing needed skills. Sure, there’s the military, but it has become undersupported and used poorly by timid careerists and ignorant of war political leadership. Sure, there’s welfare, but it is a virtually unrestrained and lax stipend to secure votes from those without ambition, self-discipline, and illegal immigrants they want to legalize. Sure, there's infrastructure, but it is usually dome ineptly, overly costly due to paying off unions, and the funds drained away for pet projects outside core infrastucture needs. I could go on. What we came up with is the sole thing that government does well is to use our tax money to line the pockets of politicians and bureaucrats, most of who are really not needed except in the view of those who support interfering with and controlling the private lives of productive citizens.

The establishment is largely without merit.

That is the core understanding of at least half the voters nationally, and probably more when directly faced with the question of worth that we discussed. This well may be somewhat exaggerated, but probably not by very much.

The one-sided and contemptuous behavior and writing of the left’s politicians and their media and cultural allies in the NY-Washington, L.A.-San Francisco, and academic self-congratulatory circuits merely confirms this view of the establishment every day almost every time they open their mouths.

The half of America that takes umbrage and rejects their snotty and ignorant disregard of reality, the half of America that really toils and pays the tolls, stand up behind the Trump agenda because they understand it. The Trump agenda is to bring down and destroy if possible the corrupt establishment. It’s an imperfect agenda, opening ground that the establishment thought it has plowed under and sanitized against independent thought, but it is felt and believed to be necessary. That’s why the pouting of the left is disregarded as an immaterial and misleading defense of their status quo establishment’s self-serving.

Wednesday, October 4. 2017

Friday, September 29. 2017

A central theme in this Day Of Judgment, which begins tonight, is the importance of seeking out forgiveness from those who we've harmed, and determining to set a better new course in our behavior. The flip side of this is whether the one who is harmed will be forgiving. If not, after several sincere attempts to obtain forgiveness, the duty is satisfied. Yet, the one harmed will bear the burden of bitterness. This video explains how to overcome that.

Wednesday, September 20. 2017

The "Days Of Awe" begin with Rosh Hashanah and end 10 days later with Yom Kippur. These High Holy Days are a period of intense soul and behavior searching, and repentance only comes from abject admission of sins, earnest apologies and restitution to those harmed or needlessly offended, and a strict course of reform. It is appropriate that the Torah portion of this week is Deuteronomy 32.1-35.52. Moses is denied entry into Israel due to his prior sins and he is instructed by G-d to recite a poem to the Hebrews to remind them that if they stray from G-d they may lose G-d's favor.

This period and warning are not applicable just for a day, or a week, or even a year. The warning is applicable throughout our lives. This isn't to say that any of us will not fail from time to time but that the course of getting back on track is clear, is within out own power and responsibility, and does not come from or depend on absolution by G-d.

Sunday, September 17. 2017

Thursday, September 14. 2017

The following is the first factual, shall I say fact-checking, review that I've come across about the Ken Burns narrative of the Vietnam war(s). Other reviews are more of the same breast-beating and ignorant narrative that has dominated in the liberal press for the past several decades. This review circulated among various Vietnamese and Americans with an interest in a more realistic contemporary view, rather than retrospective self-justifications for weakness of will and understanding that condemned millions to death and torture.

COMMENTS ON THE VIETNAM WAR DOCUMENTARY FILM

Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Sang

I was fortunate to be part of a joint PBS and local library panel to preview the Vietnam War Documentary by filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick who had spent ten years to complete the eighteen-episode series, which the PBS will air on September 17, 2017.

Although being anxious before an audience of more than 200 participants (mostly American-born except for my young assistant, Dr. Gwen Huynh) I decide to continue with the discussion thinking it is an opportunity to express a Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces soldier’s view about the war inspire of my limited language skill.

After the presentation, each of the panelists was asked one question. The Film features a North Vietnamese veteran named Bao Ninh who says that there was no winner during the Vietnam War. The moderator asked me to comment on the interviewee’s statement.

To me, in order to determine who won and who lost the war, one needs to answer three fundamental questions: (1) what was the goals of the involved parties. (2) What price did they have to pay? (3) The overall assessment of the war.

A- Goals of Involved Parties

1. According to the Pentagon Papers (Pentagon Papers is a nearly 4,000-page top-secret Pentagon study of US government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War from 1945 to 1967. An American activist and former United States military analyst, Mr. Daniel Ellsberg, released it through the New York Times in 1971. The document was declassified on May 5, 2011, and has been on display at the Library of President Nixon in California. ), the US got involved in the Vietnam War was to encompass the Communist China, not to help defend South Viet Nam's independence, which was the ruse for the US containment strategy at the time.

2. The North Vietnam’s goal was to "liberate" South Viet Nam by force and to use it as a springboard to spread International Communism throughout Southeast Asia, which was also Ho Chi Minh’s goal since 1932 when he was the leader of the Indochinese Communist Party. Le Duan, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), who was believed to have said, "We fight the Americans for the USSR and China", must have followed this goal to the letter. If so, the statement represented the true mission of the Communist leaders.

3. On the contrary, the goal of the South Vietnamese leaders was to defend the country’s independence and sovereignty. Since the North Vietnamese Communists enjoyed maximum supports from the USSR, China, the Eastern European Communist Block, and even Cuba, South Viet Nam had no other choice but accepted assistances from the United States and other capitalist countries to fight against the Communist invasion.

Monday, April 10. 2017

The Passover Seder, in which we follow a strict order of prayers and foods, is the Jewish way of remembering from whence we came from slavery into freedom. The question has been debated among Judaism's leading scholars whether it is more important to learn the rules of Passover or the lessons of Passover. It is largely a false dichotomy. Following the Seder rules are an act of devotion and discipline to continue the memory of our roots. The memory of our roots, however, are not just about a history but a future. In every generation we are to remember and feel the experience of the Divine liberation, and that since then there have been numerous efforts to eradicate us so it is important to build solidarity and faith for survival.

The narrative is about what the past tells us for our future. The narrative is meant to be a call to discuss and think about freedom, slavery, choice, and destiny. The Exodus is a call to revolutionary hope, rather than acceding to slavery and hardship. Because of retaining the memory of the seemingly impossible liberation, as if we had ourselves experienced it, it provides the hope and belief that the days to come will not necessarily be like today, if we work and fight for a better tomorrow. That's why the Seder ends with the affirmation of next year being in Jerusalem, of the ingathering in peace, safety and justice.

The Passover Seder is a ritual meal that serves our vision of improving our lives and world.

There's a third element that is important in Judaism: enjoying ourselves so that our connectedness is emotionally felt and ongoing via teaching in an enjoyable way. With that, I give you the latest "uptown" Passover narrative:

Here's a new 2017 description of a traditional East European Passover Seder. But, Jews have been scattered all about the Earth. Here's about those delectable foods brought to the Passover table.

Thursday, March 2. 2017

Tuesday, February 28. 2017

The Democrats and their press proxies were all prepared with their talking points against the Donald Trump who sneers in their smug faces. Instead, President Trump was at his presidential best, clear, softly spoken, strategic in his sweep across the policy landscape, offering his hand to his opponents to instead think first of America instead of scoring petty points.

The Democrats in Congress looked bewildered and pantsed, sour looks on their faces in the face of programs that appeal to most Americans, not knowing what to do, their steam looking like hot air, and the media stammered its appreciation with less of but not excluding their sneers.

The American people got to see it all, to the self-created embarrassment of the Democrats.